Interview with my Hostmother Asha

The following questions were answered by my hostmother and worded by myself. She comes from a well-educated background and speaks very good English. She gives tuition for young students at her home, does the housework, likes to read and takes part in social events. Like most Indian people family and the future of her children are the most important things to her.

What were your experiences and expectations while/before having a foreigner at your home?
In general the experience was very good.   We didn’t know how to communicate and what food to prepare before Manuel came. We were happy that he liked all our food and ate with his hands. He even learnt to prepare some Indian food. We saw that he was very motivated at work and with his efforts to experience many things in India. We wish him a fulfillment of his ambitions and we want him to visit us along with his wife. We would like to meet the rest of his family.

What do you like/hate about India?
People here don’t hate India. Increasing population is a problem of India. I appreciate that in India between every state you find big differences.  So we can see diversity. Indian people should find a way to deal with foreign culture.

What could you learn/understand?
First we saw foreigners as people with bad habits because they don’t fit in our expectations and have another way of life (Relationships, Roaming around, traveling and spending money).We realized they are not as bad as we thought. They are freer and take their own ways and responsibilities. They are concerned with their family in another way.  Indian people and foreigners are in many aspects different. How they live, speak, eat…. and their punctuality. Maybe we have to learn a bit from them. About Germany I only know what Manuel told me. We appreciate Manuel’s work and patients with his students. It is really good to (go somewhere and) do service.  We saw some foreigners are friendly to streetdogs. That is strange for us. There are also many things we don’t know. One thing we noticed is foreigners asks about all the details or timings and they value things like drawings of children.